Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, pantiliners, tampons, absorbent interlabial devices, disposable diapers, incontinence products, and bandages are designed to absorb and retain liquid and other discharges from the human body and to prevent body and clothing soiling. In the manufacture of absorbent articles, it is generally necessary to bond the components that will form the absorbent article together in order to form the finished product. For example, topsheet materials can be bonded to an absorbent layer, such as, for example, a secondary layer, to provide added strength and reinforcement to the topsheet material.
Some topsheet materials, such as low cost soft and silky tactile topsheet materials, have weak material strength in the cross direction. It has been observed that using typical bonding methods, such as, for example, fusion bonding, to bond such materials to an absorbent layer can result in destruction of the material and compromised bond site integrity. One solution for bonding these types of materials includes adding glue to the bond sites; however, gluing the layers together results in a stiffer, less comfortable and more integrated laminate of materials. Thus, there remains a desire and need in the art to develop an article having sufficient bonding between the topsheet and the absorbent material, particularly when using a low cost topsheet material with weak material strength in the cross direction, so as to prevent tearing of the topsheet during use, without undesirably increasing the stiffness of the article.